It’s not just the glorious 22B Impreza STI restomod and the dune-bashing, Baja tackling Hunter that Prodrive is building these days. Turns out it’s also working on things that are a little more...practical.
This is the Evolv, an all-new ‘last mile electric quadricycle’ that comes after a collaboration between Prodrive Advanced Technology and Astheimer Design. As you might have guessed from the company names, it was penned by Astheimer and engineered by Prodrive.
But what actually is it? Well, it’s an L7e category electric quadricycle with a 20kWh battery and around 160km of range. It’s 3.24 meters long and just 1.45 meters wide, and weighs 850kg—but it has four cubic meters of load space. We’re told that’s double the volume of other L7e vehicles and puts it in a similar carrying class to midsize vans. Not bad. In fact, 60% of the Evolv’s total volume is empty space for carrying stuff.
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Prodrive Advanced Technology and Astheimer Design have founded a new company to market the Evolv, and ‘ELM Mobility’ plans to put this little delivery van into production in the UK in 2028.
The van you see on these images is the first working demonstrator, and it’ll fit a 1.6-meter-tall Euro pallet with a 300kg payload in the main load area accessed via the side doors. It’ll also fit a 1.2-meter-tall Euro pallet with a 200kg payload into the secondary load area, which is accessed via the rear barn doors.
Plus, Prodrive engineered the Evolv to meet N1 (small van) passive safety crash standards rather than just the L7e standards. That means it should be safer for the centrally seated driver in an accident. Should an accident occur, the fared-in headlights are less likely to be damaged and the body panels are modular so that they’re easily replaced.
The Evolv should be fairly nimble in town, too—its turning circle is just 7.8 meters. Top speed is around 80kph, and it’ll charge from 20% to 80% in less than two hours. An optional pallet truck capable of lifting up to 300kg will also be available to stow on board, and prices could apparently start around the £25,000 (P1.84 million) mark.
Not quite as cool as the 22B or the Hunter, then, but fairly interesting nonetheless.
More photos of the Evolv by Prodrive and Astheimer Design:
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
